A young man is on a coast-to-coast mission…to raise awareness for a cause that is close to his heart.
20-year-old Skye Wattie is cycling from B-C to Newfoundland to raise funds and awareness for people who use augmentative and alternative communication devices.
Yesterday he made a stop in Owen Sound…on his Kilometres for Communication tour.
Skye’s brother Kerr has cerebral palsy, and uses a communication device to speak.
He is joining Skye on the trip, along with their mother Gail Fisher-Taylor.
Skye says his brother often doesn’t get treated as an adult because people sometimes think he can’t understand them, or that he is unable to communicate.
He says its frustrating, because Kerr is 26 and very smart and intuitive.
Skye tells us his brother is an advocate for funding for communication devices and he does presentations at colleges and universities about the way he communicates.
He says his main goal for this trip is to get the public to realize that people who communicate in alternative ways should not be treated any diffrently.
Skye began his journey in Port Renfrew B-C on May 19th and will end up in Newfoundland sometime in August.
He is partnering with the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC), as well as the Thames Valley Childrens Centre. (TVCC)
He is also blogging about his trip along the way — you can find his entries at www.KilometresForCommunication.wordpress.com
